又中又英 | A slow burn | 褚简宁

　　There is an old song called Sad Movies Make Me Cry. I sometimes come across different versions of this song when I search on Spotify for songs of different periods. I watched a sad movie called Omaha on the Internet a few days ago. It didn't make me cry but it depressed me. The 2025 movie was not a big hit, but critics gave it very high marks. In my previous column I wrote about the 2026 movie The Devil Wears Prada 2 which one movie critic described as flat champagne.

　　As I explained, the expression "flat champagne" when used to describe a movie means a movie that looks appealing but is in fact boring. One movie critic described the tearjerker movie Omaha as a slow burn. A tearjerker movie is a movie that makes people sad or cry. A movie that is a slow burn means a movie that develops slowly but still builds up interest until a climax that deeply affects the emotions of audiences. The expression "slow burn" can be used for a book or a play as well.

　　It can be used in an entirely different way to describe a person who gets angry very slowly instead of immediately over something. I do not want to spoil the ending of Omaha for people who intend to see it. It's about a widowed father with two young children who could not pay the mortgage for his house after he lost his job during an economic recession. The bank takes back the house. He drives his children and their dog across the US to the city of Omaha thinking about what to do with his children.

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　　有一首老歌，叫 Sad Movies Make Me Cry（悲伤的电影使我落泪）。我在Spotify上搜寻不同时期的歌曲时，有时会遇到这首歌的不同版本。几天前，我在网上看了一出悲伤的电影《奥马哈》。它没有使我落泪，却也令我很难过。这出2025年的电影不算卖座，但评论人都给它很高分。在我上一篇文章里，我便写到2026年的《穿Prada的恶魔2》，有一个电影评论人称它为「走味的香槟」（flat champagne）。

　　正如我所解释过的，用习语flat champagne来形容电影时，是说那套电影看上去吸引，实则沉闷没趣。一名电影评论人形容tearjerker movie《奥马哈》为slow burn。A tearjerker movie是赚人热泪的电影。A slow burn的电影是指一套电影缓慢地推进但仍能提起观众兴趣，直到电影高潮一刻，深深地撼动观众的情绪。习语 slow burn也可以用来形容一本书或一场戏剧。

　　它亦可以完全不同的方式使用，去形容某人的怒气慢慢累积，而不是立时爆发。有些人可能会计划收看《奥马哈》，我不想剧透它的结局。电影是关于一个丧偶的父亲带着两个年幼的孩子，在经济衰退期间丢失了工作，未能支付房贷，银行把他的房屋收回。他驾车载着他的孩子和狗，穿越美国到奥马哈这个城市，想着跟他的孩子下一步可以怎么办。

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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻